Richard Thomas Lowe, an unknown Botanical Illustrator

• Autor(a) principal: Mesquita, Sandra
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Castel-Branco, Cristina, Sequeira, Miguel Menezes de
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/27808
• topic: Botanical illustration; Goodyera macrophylla; Madeira (Portugal); History of Botany; Ilustración botánica; Historia de la botánica

Illustration is undoubtedly part of botanical history. In the early 19th century, as botanical Latin yielded more accurate descriptions, the need for illustration in scientific publications decreased. Nevertheless, advances in printing processes boosted the production of illustrated botanical periodicals at accessible costs. Therefore, coloured depictions of plants never ceased to be part of botany at all levels. Richard Thomas Lowe (1802-1874) studied the flora of Madeira from 1826, when he first visited the island, to his death. He is well known as the author of Madeira’s first comprehensive Flora, but his work as a botanical illustrator is poorly known. We analysed the graphic production related to his first major paper, published in 1831, along with written documents, which, altogether, support a more complete understanding of Rev. Lowe’s botanical work in Madeira and his relevant activity as an illustrator. We believe that joint analysis of illustrations and correspondence show that Lowe himself made the drawings after which the plate of the orchid Goodyera macrophylla in this paper was prepared, whose authorship was, up to now, unknown.